old stories about coon hunting

warpig883
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Posts: 4627
(9/7/02 12:58:43 am)
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old stories about coon hunting
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I had posted these stories on another site when I first came to EZboard. At the time I was bouncing around between TFF and a couple other sites. I think it is time I moved them home. Some of you have already read them.

Story 1
This is a true story about my English Coonhound named Ticker. This will be a three part story about the last three hunts of his life.
The winter of '92 had fairly decent temps that kept the coon out running and not holed up all the time. It was Jan. and there was a fairly thick snow falling, big lazy flakes dropping onto the 6 to 8 inches already on the ground. I stepped outside and thought it was a nice night to take Ticker down behind the house and scare up a coon or two. There was no wind and the temperature was around 35 deg.
I let Ticker off his lease and slid down the bank to the ice of the frozen crick. I moved slowly letting him work the banks on both sides. Things were not happening at all and I decided to head for home. The wind came up and turned the nice lazy snow into a good South Dakota blizzard. Me and Ticker we both walking into the wind with our heads bowed to shield our faces from the wind. ticker was in front of me and was starting to climb over a deadfall that we had crossed earlier. he started bawling his mouth off. I looked and saw the fresh tracks in the snow on top of the log. By the time I got done looking Ticker was gone hellwinding on the trail of that coon.
I was tired out and wanted nothing better than to be in bed. But the is something about the sound of a hound on the trail that is to hard to describe. But it got me going.
Thankfully he didn't go more than a couple hundred yards and treed very hard on a big old cottonwood tree. I had a hard time seeing any eyeballs with the blowing snow but ended up shooting three. I tied twine to their legs and took off for home. I kept Ticker on the lease this time, cause I was ready for bed.

I fear we have awaked a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve. Jap. Admiral Yamamota directly after Pearl Harbor. If the women don't find you handsome, at least they should find you handy. Red Green. I am the ILLUSTRIOUS POTENTATE!

Story 2
Me and a friend decided to take Ticker out one freezing cold night around the end of Jan. '93. We decided to check a couple of abandonded farm houses because the temp was around 0 deg. and the coons would be holed up.
We let the dog go and walked over to the first place we had permission to hunt. Ticker opened up as soon as he started sniffing around the foundation. He was sniffing into holes leading into the crawlspace under the house. We looked in and saw eyeballs everywhere. The first thing we did was to go around and plug the holes with anything we could find. We left the biggest one open for Ticker to watch. Travis was on one side of the house and I was on the other. We let Ticker's barking get the coons worked up and one of us would uncover our hole and shoot if we had eyes. The coons kept moving around so it took awhile and we had to be extra careful not to shoot each other or Ticker. Pretty soon we saw a coon crawling up a hole in the floor into the main house. We plugged our holed up and headed inside. We chased him out a window and another one into the attic. Both of those we left for seed for next year.
When we got back outside we saw Ticker had decided we weren't helping him and had dug his way into the crawlspace. He was stuck tighter than hell and still howling his fool head off. We killed more coons with him trying to fight them as they would run by him.
Well then we got a nice surprise. A spotlight turned on us and a loudspeaker told up to walk over to the road. We looked and there was a Highway patrolman. We hollered we were not going anywhere and he would have to walk in to us. He was not happy and finally did come in. We told him we did not want to leave Ticker trapped where a coo could kill him. he was so amazed by what we were doing he lost his foul mood. Next the Game Warden showed up. Seems the lady sown the road had heard the ruckus and called law enforcement. they were awful nice and said they wanted to see our hunting licenses. We told them they were in our car out by the road and we would go get them if they would watch our holes and Ticker. They agreed and had a fun time yelling reports to us on what the coon and dog were doing. They had a good laugh and talked with us for a minute before leaving us to our business.
We hooked Tickers coller with a wire and got him unstuck. We used barbwire to snag the coons. It took us a couple hours of hard work but we ended up dragging 11 of them out.
I fear we have awaked a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve. Jap. Admiral Yamamota directly after Pearl Harbor. If the women don't find you handsome, at least they should find you handy. Red Green. I am the ILLUSTRIOUS POTENTATE!

Story 3
The night after the house/game warden fun in the second story I decided to take Ticker out cause he had been acting restless all day. I had him in the back porch cause it was so dang cold. He had been whining and kind of bummed out all day. I just walked down behind the house like in the first story. I was hoping to cheer him up and maybe pick up a coon or two.
It was crystal clear out but very cold. I didn't think we had much chance of finding a coon unless he found one in a beaver den or hollow tree. After I let Ticker off the lease he took off and I never heard a peep out of him. I kept walking along and I would see his tracks where he would come down the bank and up the other side every once in a while. After an hour or so of this there was no action so I decided to head for home. I called and called, no Ticker. I started walking home and left my coveralls next to some brush for him.
Whenever I get a lost dog I always leave the dogbox behind or a blanket or something. The next day the dog will almost always be there in the morning.
I was not very worried as it was only about a half mile to home and Ticker had been running this strech ever since he was a pup and I was 14.
The next morning I checked the doghouse and no Ticker. I went down to the coveralls and no Ticker. Now I was worried and scared. We were to close to home and it was to cold for him not to come back. I looked for him and put the word out around town and hoped for the best.
As time went by I kind of realized he was gone. I had picked him out of the litter cause he was a runt and figured he needed a friend. We had each other for 13 years. I was kind of thinking old age had caught up with him and I was happy he died hunting with me.
It was about three weeks later when someone stopped by the house and said some kids found a dog. He was laying in a small depression under the dirt bank in some thick brush. We had to pry him out of the half frozen ice and dirt. i saw right away that he had been bleeding from the rectum and mouth. I was in tears as I loaded him into the pickup. The vet said it looked like poisoning. I still do not know what happened. I think he might have got into something that night under the old house. But then again the coons live there.
I chopped a hole into the frozen ground with a ax and shovel and buried him by some big cottonwoods behind the house. I can see the tops of these trees from my own burial plot in our country cemetary.
I am thankful for the time we spent together and just realized as I write this story with tears running down my face that I have never talked with anyone about this and that I still love that old coonhound. I am sure we will meet again.
I fear we have awaked a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve. Jap. Admiral Yamamota directly after Pearl Harbor. If the women don't find you handsome, at least they should find you handy. Red Green. I am the ILLUSTRIOUS POTENTATE!

270abolt
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 180
(9/7/02 8:06:45 pm)
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HAVEN'T coon hunted with dogs in many years.............
really is fun with a good dog(s)...........we used to use red bones and blue ticks..................

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